Late last year, I was among the deriders, warning people to steer clear of gold. That was way back at $1,000 an ounce. Today gold trades at around $1,400 an ounce, a sweet 40% gain. (It closed last week at $1,384.)

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Along with these themes, it's important to bear in mind that gold, adjusted for inflation, is well off its record high. That would be more than $2,300 an ounce -- in today's dollars, the level gold reached back during the last gold surge, which came at the end of the stagflation 1970s.

And an ounce of gold is, according to legend, supposed to pay for a gentleman's tailored suit. In London, Saville Row bespoke suits start around $5,000.